1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to delivery of voice messages. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a message delivery service that provides delivery options to deliver a recorded message at a designated time, or repeatedly, to one or more live recipients or to their voicemail mailbox or answering machine.
2. Background of the Invention
The proliferation of electronic communication media has increased the necessity to efficiently contact any individual or organization instantly. Electronic communication media, such as telephones, interactive pagers, and personal data assistants, are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, allowing instant communication with particular individuals who are also using such media. Each device requires knowledge of a specific access code, typically a unique identifying number for the media, such as a telephone number or a voicemail mailbox number. New media are constantly being introduced that enhance the already expanding choices for instant-delivery electronic communications media.
The telephone is the most commonly used electronic communication device. Many land-line telephones and cellular telephones have an associated electronic voicemail message system or answering machine that allows a caller to leave a message if the intended recipient does not answer a call after a predetermined number of rings. The intended recipient, having heard the rings or being otherwise notified of a message, may then access the electronic voicemail system or answering machine and hear the caller's message. The voicemail or answering machine message typically is stamped with a time and date label by the recipient's voicemail system or answering machine to indicate when the call or message was received, which is usually when the caller made the call or left the message. For most unanswered calls, such a system is sufficient, and serves the purposes of both the caller and the recipient.
A conventional voicemail delivery method is shown in FIG. 1. Although the method shown in FIG. 1 presents a series of steps in a particular order, the order of such steps may be changed without affecting the overall function or limitations of such a conventional method. For example, instead of choosing recipient mailboxes before recording a message, a caller may first record the message, and then choose recipient mailboxes.
As shown in FIG. 1, in a conventional voicemail system, in step 101a caller accesses the voicemail system by dialing an instant voicemail messenger delivery telephone number, or by connecting to a recipient's voicemail system when the recipient does not answer a telephone call. When the caller reaches the recipient's voicemail system, she must simply leave a message, which gets date and time stamped by the recipient's system. If the caller accesses an instant voicemail messenger delivery system, in step 102 the caller may choose which mailboxes are intended to receive a message. The caller has no other choices available to her. If the telephone call is directly made to one recipient, then additional voicemail mailboxes cannot be accessed.
However, if the caller directly uses a voicemail messenger delivery system, she may then choose one or more recipient mailboxes. In step 103, the caller records a message. In step 104, the caller may optionally review and/or change the recorded message. The caller may want to listen to the recorded message, add to the message, re-record it, or cancel it altogether. If the caller wants to re-record the message, he or she may do so in step 103. In step 105, the caller is then given the opportunity to send the message to the recipients' mailboxes. If the caller decides not to send the message, the caller may cancel the message at step 106 and compose either another message or completely abandon the message. If the message is sent in step 107, then the recipients will receive the message in their voicemail mailboxes. The received message typically receives a time and date stamp when the recipient's voicemail mailbox or answering machine receives the message.
Thereafter, the recipient may hear the message and the time/date that the message was received. Recipients of such electronically recorded messages typically associate the time a message is received with the time the message was sent by the caller because conventional voicemail delivery systems deliver a recorded voicemail message instantly. Thus, if a sender sends a voicemail at an odd hour, the recipient becomes aware that the message was sent at such an hour.
However, situations arise when a caller may not want to disturb a recipient by ringing her telephone, such as when the recipient is at an important event and does not wish to be disturbed. On the other hand, the caller may not be able to wait until a later time to call the recipient because the caller may then be engaged in other activities that are not conducive to making telephone calls.
As a non-limiting example, an employee may want to relay important information to a supervisor, but it is late in the evening. The employee does not wish to call the supervisor at such an inopportune time to relay the message because the supervisor may be awakened or otherwise disturbed by the call. Also, the employee may not wish the time of the voicemail message to be marked as late evening. Conventionally, a common solution to this dilemma is for the employee to wake up at the right time the next morning, which could be earlier than the employee usually gets up, to be able to relay the information to the supervisor either directly through the telephone or via the supervisor's voicemail box. If the employee fails to make the telephone call at the right time, for example, either by oversleeping or forgetting to make the telephone call, then the employee, employer, or business may suffer from the lack of the employer's timely knowledge of the information. Conventional voicemail delivery and telephone systems are incapable of addressing the messaging needs of the employee in these circumstances.
Similarly, if during a late hour in the evening, a person wants to deliver information to one or more people who would likely not want to be disturbed at that time, the most common solution is for the person to write down all her thoughts and messages and then relay them to each of the other persons the next morning. Such inconvenience is commonly endured to prevent inopportune telephone calls and voice messages to potential recipients and to maintain a courteous relationship between the parties. Conventional voicemail delivery and telephone systems, however, are also not designed to address the messaging needs in the foregoing situation.
As another non-limiting example, late at night prior to embarking on a red-eye international flight, a supervisor remembers that she must relay an important voicemail message to one or more of her employees. Although it may be acceptable for her to send an all-company voicemail to her employees' voicemail boxes before she boards the flight, it would be more professional if she could record such a message, and have the voicemail system relay the message, at a later, more appropriate business time, for example, early the next morning, to all her employees. The early morning voicemail would indicate that the supervisor is efficient in informing her employees of the important message first thing in the morning, and it even may be necessary to give the impression to the employees that the supervisor is at work or in town. However, conventional voicemail systems are incapable of providing the supervisor with such an option. Thus, the caller is unnecessarily inconvenienced by the limitations of present voicemail systems and must conform to the limited options provided by such systems to send voicemail messages at an appropriate time.
As another non-limiting example, a caller may wish to deliver a message to a recipient, and wishes that only a live person receives that message, as opposed to the message being delivered to a voicemail mailbox or answering machine. However, conventional message delivery systems do not provide such delivery options, and as a consequence the caller must inconveniently either leave a message for the recipient or repeatedly call the recipient until the recipient herself answers the telephone.